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Archives > Volume 8 Issue 13 - February 17, 2010 Pope Benedict lambasts Irish Catholic Church over 'heinous' child sex abuse...Pope Benedict XVI gave the bishops of the Irish Catholic church a public dressing down at the Vatican today over the "heinous" child abuse scandal that has capsized the church's moral authority in Ireland. The Guardian story here 
However, doubts remain about the church's openness after the papal envoy in Dublin declined to give evidence to a parliamentary inquiry there.
After two days of discussions in the Vatican, during which each of the 24 Irish bishops was called in separately and given seven minutes to explain his conduct, an official statement was issued. "The Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image," it said. "While realising that the painful situation will not be resolved quickly [the pope] challenged the bishops to address the problems of the past with determination and resolve and to face the crisis with honesty and courage." Before the crisis meeting, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, had called on clergy who had abused children to admit to their "abominable acts" in a scandal that threatened to sink the church in Ireland. He told the bishops: "The most dangerous storm is that which touches the heart of believers, shaking their faith and threatening their capacity to entrust themselves to God." That call was undermined in Dublin by the news that the papal nuncio in Ireland, Cardinal Giuseppe Leanza, has refused to appear before a parliamentary inquiry in the Dáil, saying in a letter last week that "it is not the practice of the Holy See that apostolic nuncios appear before parliamentary commissions". Leanza has ignored requests from earlier official Irish investigations to assist them. The pope is due to write a letter to Irish Catholics in the spring which is expected to echo that he shares their "outrage, betrayal and shame" at the evidence produced in two official reports last year which showed what had been alleged for decades - that the church covered up and denied abuse by priests over many years. November's Murphy report damningly stated that the church had obsessively covered up abuse in the Dublin archdiocese, bolstered by its dominant position in Irish life, and that bishops had been more concerned to safeguard the reputation of the church than to protect children. Today's Vatican statement acknowledged the church's failure to act effectively and admitted there had been a breakdown in trust in the church's leadership in Ireland. "There is no doubt that errors of judgement and omissions stand at the heart of the crisis," it said. Four bishops have offered their resignations, but only one has been accepted, amid squabbles between the bishops over degrees of culpability. For more on this story, see vol7_iss77, vol8_iss1, and vol8_iss8. Cops hunt U.S. Baptist missionaries' ex-legal adviser... The fugitive former legal adviser to a group of Americans detained in Haiti on kidnapping charges said he has yet another reason to stay in hiding: He's been indicted in the U.S. in an immigrant smuggling case. MSNBC story here 
Jorge Puello, who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the 10 Americans jailed in Haiti, was already being pursued by law enforcement authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police say he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution. He also had an outstanding warrant for a U.S. parole violation.
Puello - who says he is innocent of all the accusations against him - acknowledged in a phone interview with The Associated Press that he is also named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States. The 32-year-old, identified as Jorge Torres in the indictment, was living in Canada at the time and managed to avoid arrest. He says he was working undercover for U.S. authorities at the time. Law enforcement officials said they hadn't yet confirmed the Puello is Torres but the case is open. "Mr. Torres was a fugitive in Canada and the United States has requested his extradition," said Tristram Coffin, the U.S. Attorney for Vermont. "We've always been interested in him. We remain interested in fugitives when they flee." Puello, as he has been known most recently, called the AP to discuss his case and said he was in Panama and preparing to return to El Salvador to fight the charges against him there. His whereabouts could not be confirmed. The growing legal troubles for Puello have become a distraction for the detained Americans and those trying to secure their release. The Baptist missionaries were accused to trying to remove 33 children from Haiti without authorization following the January 12 earthquake. Lawyers for the missionaries told the AP that a judge could rule on their request for provisional release as early as Wednesday morning. A lawyer for nine of them, meanwhile, said Puello absconded with most of the fee relatives of the Americans gave the Dominican to pay him. "He was supposed to give me $40,000 and he gave me $10,000 and he stole $30,000 and he disappeared," said Aviol Fleurant. Puello's involvement with the Americans began to unravel when authorities in El Salvador noted his resemblance to a suspect in the sex trafficking case. He acknowledged on Monday that he is in fact the suspect but said he was wrongly accused and will fight the charges. See vol8_iss9, vol8_iss10, vol8_iss11, and vol8_iss12 for more on this story. In other news... 
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services will suspend its effort to reduce the number of children in foster care in the wake of the deaths of several children formerly in its care. Los Angeles Times news story here The decision marks a turnaround for the Department of Children and Family Services, which for many years has sought to cut the foster care rolls, in part by trying to mend troubled families. The department's leaders have cited the decline in foster children - from a high of 52,000 in 1997 to a low of 19,900 last year - as one of their proudest achievements. The decision is the most significant of several reforms made by the department after a series of high-profile child deaths last year, some of which involved the department putting too much faith in its ability to rehabilitate families. In 2009, The Times reported that reunifications led to some children's further injuries and even deaths. Isabel Garcia, for instance, starved to death two months after child-welfare officials deemed that she, her five siblings and their parents were all doing well. Toddler Angel Montiel and his siblings were reunited with their parents after the couple enrolled in parenting classes, drug testing and other "family preservation" services. He subsequently was beaten to death. An autopsy found dozens of injuries, some fresh and some healed, including broken bones and burns. Originally charged with murder, his mother pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. "These cases had a very deep effect on the department," Ploehn said.
Puerto Rico needs more effective legislation to halt human trafficking in the U.S. Caribbean territory, Latin superstar Ricky Martin said Monday. AP story from Findlaw here Martin was visiting his native island to present a study conducted by the nonprofit Ricky Martin Foundation, a group advocating children's rights globally. The 91-page report concludes that sex tourism and human trafficking are serious problems in Puerto Rico, and that the island is used as a transit point for smuggled women and children. "This is happening on our island," said Martin, a winner of multiple Grammy awards, as he presented the study at the University of Puerto Rico. "We cannot turn our back on the victims." Luis Cdebaca, director of the U.S. State Department's division of human-trafficking monitoring, praised the singer - perhaps best-known for his "Livin' the Vida Loca" single - for bringing attention to human trafficking and other forms of modern-day slavery. He said traffickers are thriving in Puerto Rico and across the U.S. mainland. "What we are dealing with is a situation where people are suffering because no one is hearing their voice," he said.
Oklahoma City police accuse a Florida woman of traveling to Oklahoma City to seduce a teenager she met through an online video game. The Oklahoman news story here An Oklahoma County judge signed an arrest warrant Tuesday for Annamay Alexander, 43, of Deltona, Florida, on a felony stalking complaint, according to court papers. Alexander met the 14-year-old boy, whose name The Oklahoman is withholding because of the nature of the alleged crime, on a Sony Playstation 3 virtual reality game, police Detective Robert Kemmet wrote in an affidavit. Players in the Sony Home virtual reality environment interact with each other through electronic representations of themselves. Alexander later contacted the youth through text messages and phone calls, Kemmet wrote. The victim's mother woke up on January 9, noticed her son wasn't home and told him by text message to return home, according to the affidavit. When the youth got home, Alexander was with him. Alexander told the mother the victim intended to marry her daughter and she wanted to talk to him about it, but did not mention her daughter is 9 years old, Kemmet wrote. The victim's mother told Alexander to leave and not to contact her son. Alexander returned two days later, and the victim's mother also intercepted two telephone calls to her son from Alexander, the affidavit states. On February 10, the victim's mother found multiple text and photo messages from Alexander on her son's cell phone, Kemmet wrote. There was also a photo of Alexander in her underwear on the victim's Playstation console. "My body is yours to do whatever you want with, Alexander wrote in one of the text messages, according to the affidavit. Alexander also referred to herself as the victim's wife and used his last name in notes and messages to him, Kemmet wrote. The victim told his mother he had a sexual relationship with Alexander and has since threatened suicide regarding the relationship, the affidavit states.
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